The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 220: The Cursed Castle’s Background

Chapter 220: The Cursed Castle’s Background

Annalise took a sip of the warm tea that Sir Niles had just served. She was now sitting on a comfy chair next to the fireplace while Sir Niles sat on the other chair opposite her. As for the other man, he was standing not too far away with his back pressed against one of the wooden shelves that were lining up the entire wall.

Her eyes were trying to look all around but at the very same time, she was trying to keep her focus on the two men, especially the younger one. She still couldn’t stop herself from recalling the specific title he used to address her just a couple of moments ago. The bad part was that no matter how many times she tried to ask them about why he addressed her as a queen, none of the two men seemed eager to answer her and just kept ignoring her questions.

"So..." She finally spoke up as the silence was too uncomfortable for her to take in any longer, "... he is the guardian of this place?" Her question was directed at Sir Niles while her attention was fixed on the younger man.

"Yes, yes. This is Silas who was assigned the job of looking after the entire castle... along with all its secrets." Sir Niles answered proudly as he officially introduced the younger man as the guardian of the castle.

Silas bowed his head in another greeting to Annalise before he returned to stand against the wall.

Annalise remained silent for the next couple of minutes as she took more sips of the slightly bitter tea. It was only when she had almost emptied the cup that she decided to break the silence that had fallen in the room.

"He seemed to be doing a really great job. When I first arrived here, I had to sleep in a rundown room and on a dust covered bed. It took me and my people months to get the castle in a state where it can be considered a liveable place, let alone the profound castle of the late Light Fae Queen."

She didn’t try sugarcoating her words as she clearly blamed Silas for failing his duties as the guardian of the castle.

What she didn’t expect was to see the man kneeling on the floor right in front of her just as she finished speaking. "What are you doing?" She asked while straightening in her seat, pressing herself more into the chair to hide her discomfort because of the situation.

"My..." Silas started speaking as he looked up from the floor and directly at her but immediately hesitated as if he wasn’t sure about his next words. It took him a couple of seconds but he eventually seemed to find what he wanted to say as he continued, "My lady, it may look like I was the one who abandoned my duty but that’s far from true. Ten thousand years ago, when the tragedy happrned, Sir Niles, I, and Amelia did exactly what we were instructed."

He stopped there to take in a deep breath before continuing, "But after the Queen left us... things started turning for the worst. The Portal died and so did the magical energy that was keeping this place alive. All three of us tried our very best to keep the castle from dying but no matter whatever we did, it was not even anywhere near to being enough. In the end, we have to hide in the warded areas of the castle to keep it stable. Such a long time passed but we never succeeded in bringing this place back to life."

Annalise wasn’t sure why she even felt surprised after hearing his part of the story about the Castle. So far, she kept hearing again and again just how her arrival at the Cursed Castle had brought the place back to life. Truth was, the more people said or implied those words, the harder it became for her to ignore it.

Now, it was clearly oblivious, even to her, that the castle had bloomed back to life only because of her. But the question was - why?

She contemplated for a while about which question she should ask first as there were many filling her brain. Finally, she decided to focus on the castle instead of herself as she asked, "The other room on this floor... why is there a secret magical city inside it with thousands of Seelie races living there while the rest of the world thinks that all the Seelies have gone extinct?"

Sir Niles and Silas exchanged a glance as if communicating through telepathy or something. It was the former who decided to answer her question - "Back then, it seemed like the High Queen was already aware that something really bad was going to happen to the Seelie Realm. She kept looking through all the secret ancient records and scrolls to find something and one day, after weeks and months of search, she finally found what she was looking for."

"What was it?" Annalise asked hurriedly as she could hardly stop herself. Her curiosity was about to burst through the high roof.

"It was a creation spell - the same spell that she used to create not only this castle but all the secret spheres inside it." Sir Niles answered as he poured more tea for Annalise and himself, Silas was in no mood for tea.

"She built the castle here because this was the location of two extremely important things related to the Seelie Realm - the Portal and the first core of the ward. Besides, these two created a lot of magical energy that could have kept the castle safe and its magic dogkjng for s very long time."

"Wait!" Annalise quickly interfered as she found a particular part of his story weird.

"What is it, My Lady?" Silas asked who had now taken a seat on the floor between her and Sir Niles.

"You just said that the first core of the ward was also here. Did you mean that the protection wards were present even before the Seelie Realm got locked down?" She raised the question and watched the two men as she waited for their answer.

"You probably don’t know this, My Lady, but there has been a protection ward surrounding the Seelie Empire from the very beginning. What those people actually did during sealing the wards was to change the spells working on the wards. Back then, the wards were supposed to keep the people of Seelie Realm safe from the dangers coming from the outside world but now, because of the changed spells, the wards are supposed to keep the rest of the world safe from what lay sealed inside the Seelie Realm."

Annalise was silent as she let the information sank into her mind and settle there. After a couple of minutes, she signaled Sir Niles to continue with his story.

"The Queen created the first room on this floor as a magical city big enough for nearly eight to ten thousand Seelies to stay hidden there for a long time without any fear of the dark energy getting to them." Sir Niles continued with his story and started with the secret spheres inside the castle.

"This place, it was created to keep all the ancient secrets hidden here from the enemy." His eyes shimmered as he looked around the place before turning his attention to her as he whispered, "Our Queen was really smart, My Lady. She made sure that every important thing inside the Seelie Realm was safely brought here along with her people. She didn’t let the darkness destroy the rich history of the Light Royal family and our realm."

Annalise could not deny that she was beyond impressed to find out just how smart and farsighted late High Fae Queen was. She could finally understand why that woman was known as the true legend throughout the four realms despite the long ten thousand years that had passed by since her demise.

"You can probably tell why there’s a secret chamber in the basement and as for the old oak tree, that place was her secret hideout. None of us know much about it except the fact that the Queen loved spending time there whenever she felt too stressed." Silas finally spoke again as he concluded the story of the remaining two secret places inside the castle.

"Are there no more secret places in thd castle except for these four places?" Annalise asked as she wasn’t looking forward to getting more unexpected surprises in the near future.

Sir Niles chuckled softly while Silas just shook his head before answering, "No, My Lady, this castle only has four secret spheres and it seems like you already have been to all four of them."

She nodded her head in agreement as she finally understood the entire history of the famous Cursed Castle and all the secrets that it had been hiding since ages.